Methods and systems for signal construction for distribution and monetization by signal sellers

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems for generating signals or indicators from distributed data sources controlled by a multiplicity of owners are also provided. Signals are indicators of data that are derived from data sources and abstracted to protect the underlying data. Each entity that sells data in the virtual marketplace first converts data into a “signal” or indicator that represents the data without disclosing it or providing it. The value of the signal cannot be determined separately from one or more buyers and their objectives. Sellers of signals determine if it wants to share information based upon buyer, price, and other rules.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/791,297, filed Mar. 15, 2013, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to methods and systems for generating orconstructing signals or indicators by signal sellers for distributionand sale to signal buyers, and more particularly for use towardadvertising or other objectives.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Generally, it is known in the prior art to provide market signals asinformation passed between participants in a market. Examples ofrelevant art documents include the following:

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0178845 for “System andMethod for Matching Merchants to a Population of Consumers” by inventorsRane, et al., filed Jan. 20, 2010, describes a process of data analysisfor the purpose of improving targeted advertising and analytics of data,with the major focus on drawing useful inferences for various entitiesfrom aggregated data, wherein entities are not limited to businesses andmay include government agencies (census, polling data, etc.).

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0233206 for “Methods andSystems for Electronic Data Exchange Utilizing Centralized ManagementTechnology” by inventors Peterson, et al., filed May 24, 2012, describesan exchange of data among business entities and the process ofdisclosing/receiving data and a central management system for companiesengaged in strategic partnership or alliance, whereas Patent 1 dealswith a market place dynamic rather than a data exchange within alocked-in partnership management.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0066062 for “Systems andMethods to Present Triggers for Real-Time Offers” by inventors Yoder, etal., filed Aug. 8, 2011, describes collecting consumer transaction datafor the benefit of targeted advertisements and an auctioning process(auction engine) for providing data clusters to clients. For example,cardholders may register in a program to receive offers, such aspromotions, discounts, sweepstakes, reward points, direct mail coupons,email coupons, etc. The cardholders may register with issuers, or withthe portal of the transaction handler. Based on the transaction data ortransaction records and/or the registration data, the profile generatoris to identify the clusters of cardholders and the values representingthe affinity of the cardholders to the clusters. Various entities mayplace bids according to the clusters and/or the values to gain access tothe cardholders, such as the user. For example, an issuer may bid onaccess to offers; an acquirer and/or a merchant may bid on customersegments. An auction engine receives the bids and awards segments andoffers based on the received bids. Thus, customers can get great deals;and merchants can get customer traffic and thus sales.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0246309 for “Method, storedprogram, and system for improving descriptive profiles” by inventorShkedi, filed May 25, 2011, describes a process that enables entities toacquire databanks of user profiles that can add to existing knowledge ofuser profile data and the process is described as a transaction in thatthe entities disclose a set of profile information in exchange foradditional, helpful data relevant to the disclosed data.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0323954 for “Systems andmethods for cooperative data exchange” by inventors Bonalle, et al.,filed Jun. 14, 2011, describes methods that enable business entities togain greater, useful insights on their customers and build upon theirrelatively limited data via consumer data exchange, wherein uponsharing/merging/exchanging customer data, businesses can performanalysis to improve their business performance, and provides an examplewherein original data may consist of a list of consumers, which can beenriched with the consumers' transaction history, search history, etc.via data exchange with other entities that own such information.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0262497 for “System andMethods for Controlling Bidding on Online Advertising Campaigns” byinventor Karlsson, filed Apr. 10, 2009, describes a system for managingbid prices of an online advertising campaign. The system includes amemory storing instructions for adjusting bid prices, and a campaigncontroller for generating a nominal bid price and a perturbationparameter, based on an ad request received from an advertiser. Thesystem further includes an engine for generating a perturbed bid pricebased on the nominal bid price and the perturbation parameter, accordingto the instructions stored in the memory. The system further includes aserving unit for serving an ad impression based on the perturbed bidprice. Also discloses that advertisers can bid on desired online addelivery for their ad campaigns, describes management of the biddingprocess by managing and adjusting the bid price and describes systemsand methods for a biddable multidimensional marketplace for advertising.

European Patent Application Publication No. 2063387 for “Systems andmethods for a biddable multidimensional marketplace for advertising on awireless communication device” by inventors Maggenti, et al., filed Mar.31, 2008, describes providing targeted advertisements via mobiledevices, and systems, methods and apparatus for a multidimensionalbidding marketplace for providing advertising content to wirelessdevices. In particular, aspects allows advertising providers, to defineand/or identify a one or more wireless device-based transient factorsfrom a plurality of factors, which serve to define a targetedadvertising audience and to bid on advertising based on the selected oridentified transient factors.

European Patent Application No. 2076877 (also published as U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2008/0103795) for “Lightweight andheavyweight interfaces to federated advertising marketplace” byinventors Biggs, et al., filed Oct. 18, 2007, describes a multi-partyadvertising exchange including advertising and publishing entities fromdifferent advertising networks, the invention provides architectures foran online advertising marketplace that range from lightweight toheavyweight implementations. A lightweight client side implementation ofan interface includes centralized processing and storage of federatedadvertising marketplace data by centralized servers or services. Aheavyweight client side implementation of an interface for advertisingentities includes providing a peer instance of a federated advertisingexchange application or set of processes is provided to each advertisingentity as an interface for advertising entities where processing andstorage are performed locally to each peer instance. Distributedadvertising data can be replicated or synchronized with other peerinstances.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,224,725 for “Escrowing digital property in a secureinformation vault” by inventors Grim, et al., filed Sep. 15, 2005,describes that data can be escrowed by receiving escrow parametersincluding a condition(s) for releasing the escrowed data, and an escrowrecipient. An escrow contract is then created based upon the specifiedescrow parameters. The escrowing further includes storing the digitaldata in a secure information vault, and storing the escrow contract,along with a pointer to the stored data, in a database. When thecondition has been satisfied, the data is released to the escrowrecipient. The condition(s) for release can be a payment sum, a date, anindication from a depositor, a trustee or a vault administrator, and/orfulfillment of another escrow contract; also describes keeping datasecure and releasing data to certain parties upon satisfaction ofcertain criteria.

U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,610 for “System and method of determining thequality of enhanced transaction data” by inventors Engle, et al., filedMar. 26, 2009, describes “enhanced data”, non-financial data beyond theprimary transaction data and includes invoice level and line itemdetails (for examples see background section) which is collected at themerchant and delivered to a financial service network.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0264497 for “Systems andMethods to Transfer Tax Credits” by inventor Clyne, filed Apr. 25, 2011,includes disclosure for a list of references describing acquiringconsumer purchase data.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0264567 for “Systems andMethods to Provide Data Services” by inventor Clyne, filed Apr. 25,2011, describes providing access to data of diverse sources in general,and more particularly, transaction data, such as records of payment madevia credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, etc., and/or informationbased on or relevant to the transaction data; also describes thattransaction data can be used for various purposes and that transactiondata or information derived from transaction data may be provided tothird parties.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0066064 for “Systems andMethods to Provide Real-Time Offers via a Cooperative Database” byinventors Yoder, et al., filed Sep. 2, 2011, describes a computingapparatus is configured to: store transaction data recordingtransactions processed by a transaction handler; organize third partydata according to community, where the third party data includes firstdata received from a first plurality of entities of a first communityand second data received from a second plurality of entities of a secondcommunity; and responsive to a request from a merchant in the secondcommunity, present an offer of the merchant in the second community tousers identified via the transaction data and the first data receivedfrom the first plurality of entities of the first community. In oneembodiment, the first data provides permission from the merchant in thefirst community to allow the merchant in the second community to useintelligence information of the first community to identify users fortargeting offers from the merchant in the second community.

U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0054189 for “User ListIdentification” by inventors Moonka, et al., filed Aug. 30, 2011,describes systems, methods, computer program products are provided forpresenting content. An example computer implemented method includesidentifying, by a data exchange engine executing on one or moreprocessors, one or more user lists based on owned or permissioned data,each user list including a unique identifier; associating metadata witheach user list including data describing a category for the user list,population data describing statistical or inferred data concerning alist or members in a given user list and subscription data includingdata concerning use of a given user list; storing in a searchabledatabase a user list identifier and the associated metadata; andpublishing for potential subscribers a list of the user lists includingproviding an interface that includes for each user list the uniqueidentifier and the associated metadata.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,850,900 for “Full service secure commercial electronicmarketplace” by inventors Hare, et al., filed Jun. 19, 2000, describesan electronic marketplace, and in particular to a full service securecommercial electronic marketplace which generically organizes, stores,updates, and distributes product information from a plurality ofsuppliers to facilitate multiple levels of sourcing, including contractand off-contract purchasing between the suppliers and a plurality ofbuyers.

None of the prior art references discloses the systems and methods ofthe present invention for constructing signals for controlleddistribution and use by the signal owner and/or for generating signalsfrom locally controlled and isolated sources for indexing, correlation,discovery and use in a federated model with a multiplicity of othersignals and participants. Thus, the creation of signals or indicators isimportant for providing secure, private and controlled release ofinformation for value that is determined by structured and rules-basedsystem and methods that do not disclose or release the underlying data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods and systems for constructingsignals by signal sellers, which is useful for transforming raw data ofthe signal sellers into signals or indicators, having applications forbuying and selling distributed information through signals withoutdisclosing the underlying data.

The distributed signals are constructed by signal sellers bytransforming raw data into signals or indicators, which facilitatebuying and selling distributed information through these signals orindicators without disclosing the underlying data. The signals arederived from data sources and abstracted to protect the underlying data.Signals are constructed in such a way that they protect the underlyingdata, but have consistency and relevance toward a given objective. Thecontent of the seller's signal is based upon a current or historicalinteraction with one or more events, objects or activities thatcorrespond to the behavior of an object. Signals are constructed aroundone or more reference point for the seller to create the signalspayload. The signal structure provides for secure and reliabletransportation and translation of the information payload containedwithin a signal. The signal construct defines the source, thedestination, the delivery channel, the method for securing the data, theagreement under which the data is exchanged, a transaction identifier, atransaction time, information necessary to confirm receipt, templatewhich describes the message type, and the payload of the message.

In systems and methods of the present invention, the construction of thesignal is under the control of the data owner. Different signalconstructs will have varying relevance toward different objectives andsignal buyers. The signal or indicator construct allows the signalseller to abstract the underlying data without being or disclosing theactual data itself, i.e., the signal functions like metadata orabstraction of raw data which was created for a given use. The economicvalue of the signal depends on the price each buyer is willing to pay,which depends on the value that the signal has toward a given objective.So while the signals are constructed by the signal owner, signal buyersand their objectives are important for monetizing the constructedsignals by the signal owner.

In methods of the present invention, each signal owner or seller firstconverts data into a “signal” or indicator, wherein the signal orindicator represents the data without being or disclosing the actualdata itself, i.e., the signal functions like metadata. The economicvalue of the signal depends on the price each buyer is willing to pay,which depends on the value or usefulness that the signal has toward agiven objective. Sellers of signals define rules governing how to sellsignals based upon historical data, buyer, agreements, price,effectiveness, consumer permissions, competitive concerns, and otherrules. Buyers have the opportunity to bid for information within therules of the seller and/or the rules of a virtual signals marketplace,if available. Signals (or indicators of data that do not disclose thedata), and the associated virtual signals marketplace, or other index orlisting provided by the signal seller, facilitate the discovery ofsignals for a use, pricing of signals for a defined use, the creation ofagreements for use, the regulatory and consumer permission of use, thetransmission and tracking during use, the value created after the use,and for the clearing and settlement based upon the terms of theagreement.

It is an aspect of this invention to provide methods and systems forconstructing or generating signals from data sources within the controlof the seller, in a structure that allows for the signals to be combinedwith a multiplicity of signals originating from other external sellersor signal owners, all of which are for a permissioned use. Yet anotheraspect of the present invention is to provide systems to automaticallyreceive distributed information controlled by multiple entities andtransform the distributed information from individual signals into acombined signal. Still another aspect of the invention is to provide alocal indexing of local signals for external purchase and use and theprocess in which local signals can be combined with external signals anddistributed data to form new signals.

These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent tothose skilled in the art after a reading of the following description ofthe preferred embodiment when considered with the drawings, as theysupport the claimed invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a virtualized system for thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 is another schematic diagram illustrating a virtualized systemfor the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring now to the drawings in general, the illustrations are for thepurpose of describing a preferred embodiment of the invention and arenot intended to limit the invention thereto.

The present invention provides methods and systems for constructingsignals, and for using constructed signals for buying and sellingdistributed data through the signals, or indicators, that represent thedata without disclosing the underlying data.

By way of background, creators of signals are the sellers ofinformation. The content of a seller's information based upon anhistorical interaction with one or more events, objects or activitiesthat correspond to the behavior of a multitude of objects. Sellers ofdata or information have multiple requests to share their information.Signals or indicators are a mechanism to share derived informationwithout disclosing the raw data. The value of any asset is highlycorrelated to the price that buyers are willing to pay; but nothing ininfinite supply can have a price. Data may theoretically have aninfinite value, but once it is shared, further dissemination is hard toprevent, thus the value of data quickly diminishes once it is shared. Itis an objective of the present invention systems and methods to providefor constructing a signal or indicator framework usable by sellersand/or by a virtual marketplace or online exchange for signals, whichprotects the underlying data that the signals or indicators represent.This signals metaphor allows each signal or indicatorprovider/owner/seller the ability to construct, control and price theirsignals and protect further dissemination of both the signals, as wellas the underlying data.

According to the present invention, the signal owner controls how the atleast one signal is created, generated and/or constructed and how the atleast one signal is used by the buyer, although for facilitating thevirtual marketplace or exchange between signal sellers and signalbuyers, preferably the at least one signal includes a signal typeselected from the group consisting of: event signals, activity signals,behavior signals, performance signals, relational signals, locationsignals, loyalty signals, purchase signals, social signals, andcombinations thereof.

The present invention provides methods for creating signals orindicators by corresponding signal owners, the method steps performed bya signal owner includes: constructing at least one signal associatedwith a behavior of an object and/or an activity and/or an eventassociated with the object in a signal owner computer that isconstructed and configured for network-based communication with a remoteserver computer, wherein the at least one signal includes at least twofactors selected from groups consisting of: event, object state, changein state, behavior of an object, relationship to another object,relationship to a behavior, economic indicators, relevance to anobjective, near-real-timeliness, frequency, recency, predictiveaccuracy, fidelity, reputation of the signal, reputation of the seller,affinity to a target, usefulness to an objective, and combinationsthereof; generating a first value for each of the at least one signal;and tracking usage of the at least one signal. Also, the construct ofthe at least one signal provides a mechanism for feedback correspondingto observation of the behaviors, activities, performance and/or theevents. Additional steps include indexing the at least one signal;listing the indexed signals in a database associated with the remoteserver computer, wherein the listing provides for automated matchingwith buyer candidates having corresponding objectives for buying signalsand signals data, wherein the objectives may include object behavior(s),activities, performance, and/or events; and updating the listing of theindexed signals by the signal seller or signal owner. In the case of amultiplicity of signals, the signals may originate from one or moredistributed data sources controlled by different owners (or from asingle signal owner), and the signals are registered in a centralizeddatabase and each of the signals is indexed in the centralized databasebased upon ownership, object relevance, behavior relevance, historicalusage, performance, and correlation to other signals and data.

As indicated hereinabove, the at least one signal includes a signal typeselected from the group consisting of: event signals, activity signals,behavior signals, performance signals, relational signals, locationsignals, loyalty signals, purchase signals, social signals, andcombinations thereof. Signals are generated or constructed from bothstructured and unstructured data. Significantly, each signal ownercontrols how the at least one signal is created, generated and/orconstructed; in embodiments of the present invention, methods of thepresent invention provide steps wherein signals or indicators arecreated by the signal owner transforming its own data into the signalsor indicators through steps of automatically organizing structured data,unstructured data and external data based upon historical patterns,external usage, external feedback, external object observations, locallymaintained correlation engines, centrally managed correlation engines,signal response management, and object estimators. In constructing theat least one signal or indicator, preferably the signal seller (or itssystems) automatically determine or predict relevance to an objectivefrom historical performance and including external observations andfeedback on object state, activity or behavior.

Methods of the present invention further include the step of generatinga value of signal relevance to the objective based upon signal feedback,object behavior, object state, and/or consumer reputation; and, moreparticularly, wherein the value of the at least one signal depends uponthe time of the at least one signal from an event occurrence, andwherein the value of the at least one signal decays over time. Also, themethods include the step of automatically correlating how the value ofthe information decays over time and with respect to relevance to theobjective. The value is automatically generated by a remote servercomputer associated with the central database, based upon at least twofactors associated with the value, and wherein the value includesrelevance to a signal buyer and a buyer objective. By way of example andnot limitation, the relevance to the signal buyer is based upon at leastone obj ective, with the economic value of the signal based upon themeasured performance of at least one signal toward at least oneobjective by the buyer. Preferably, the value of each of the signal(s)is based upon at least two factors associated with each value, the atleast two factors selected from the group consisting of: event, objectstate, change in state, behavior of an object, relationship to anotherobject, relationship to a behavior, economic indicators, relevance to anobjective, near-real-timeliness, frequency, recency, predictiveaccuracy, fidelity, reputation of the signal, reputation of the seller,affinity to a target, usefulness to an objective, and combinationsthereof. By way of example and not limitation, the relevance of a signalto the signal buyer based upon at least one objective may includemarketing and/or advertising.

The method may include additional steps including: aggregating thesignals; creating a new signal or a synthetic signal from one or moresignals from at least one source; linking the indexed signals torelational databases, wherein the signals are locally indexed by eachsignal owner and/or each seller associated with the signals; the signalsellers or owners creating and tracking their corresponding indexedsignals; updating the remote and centralized indices of signals; and/orthe seller tracking their agreements associated with buying and sellingof their signals. Preferably, the owners' or sellers' signals aretracked by the owners or sellers, within the remote server computer,which automatically tracks the signals data through its function oftransferring signal information between buyer and seller within activeagreements provided by each seller, and monitoring feedback on signalperformance through observation of events, behaviors, environment andstates of objects and objectives. Also, the at least one signal providesa feedback corresponding to the behavior, state, activity, and/or theevent. The feedback may be used by the seller, or by a virtualmarketplace or exchange (if any), to update directories, indices,pricing, history, agreements, and correlations to an objective.

While the definition and construction of the signal is at the discretionof the Seller, generally signals conform to a common signal structurewhose elements are named and formatted to marketplace conventions forthe purpose of creating a common taxonomy for publishing, discover andexchange of signal information. By way of example and not limitation,the taxonomy of the at least one signal includes a signal type selectedfrom the group consisting of: state signals, event signals, activitysignals, behavior signals, relational signals, location signals, loyaltysignals, purchase signals, social signals, and combinations thereof.

In the case of a signal exchange within a signals marketplace, but alsofor exchange outside of a marketplace directly between sellers andbuyers over a communications network, the signal structure provides forsecure and reliable transportation and translation of an informationpayload contained within each signal. The signal construct defines thesource, the destination, the delivery channel, the method for securingthe data, the agreement under which the data is exchanged, a transactionidentifier, a transaction time, information necessary to confirmreceipt, template which describes the message type, and the payload ofthe message. Sellers use the signals construct to create, register,publish, discover, assess, sell, manage, and measure data exchangeaccording to the systems and methods of the present invention. Signaltypes include both buyer-initiated and seller-initiated signals; someexamples follow for illustration purposes, but are not intended to limitthe claimed invention thereto.

Buyer Initiated Behavior Signal (BIBS). Behavior signals are publishedby sellers, which observe object behavior. For a given buyer initiatedbehavior signal, the buyer of a behavior signal requests behavior signalfrom seller for a given event, object or category of objects. Thecontent of the seller's signal is based upon an historical interactionwith one or more events, objects or activities that correspond to thebehavior of an object. To obtain the seller's signal, the buyer mustprovide a reference point for the seller to create the behavior signal.In this model it is the request of the buyer triggers the exchange ofdata. For a given reference point, the seller's signal describes abehavior such and such information as the recency and the frequency ofthe behavior. By way of example and not limitation, a behavior name isillustrated by “Travel-To [Variable]”. The buyer initiates the requestand seeds the reference point variable for the signal. Each buyer couldpay a different price depending on the value they derive from thesignal.

Buyer Initiated Event Signal (BIES). Event signals are published bysellers which observe events. For a given buyer initiated event signal,the buyer of an event signal requests objects, or categories of objectsfrom seller that have a relationship to a given event. The content ofthe seller's signal is based upon an historical interaction with one ormore events, objects or activities that correspond to an event. Toobtain the seller's signal, the buyer must provide a reference point forthe seller to create the event signal. In this model it is the requestof the buyer triggers the exchange of data. A signal request isinitiated by the buyer asking the seller if a given reference event hasoccurred. The signal response can contain information on the event,objects within the event, recency, frequency, location, as well asspecifics surrounding the event. By way of example and not limitation,consider “movie purchases in Cincinnati Ohio in last five minutes” as asignal request of this type, Each buyer could pay a different pricedepending on the value they derive from the signal.

Seller Initiated Behavior Signal (SIBS). In this case the seller isinitiating (or publishing) that a behavior has occurred. The content ofthe seller's signal is based upon a current or historical interactionwith one or more events, objects or activities which correspond to thebehavior of an object. The signals can be published to one or morebuyers, and prospective buyers as the activity occurs. Each buyer couldpay a different price depending on the value they derive from thesignal. By way of example and not limitation, consider “consumer[CONSUMER_NAME] is shopping in [Location]” as a signal.

Seller Initiated Event Signal (SIES). Seller is publishing an event toone or more buyers. The content of the seller's signal is based upon acurrent or historical interaction with one or more events, objects oractivities which correspond to the behavior of an object. From asoftware design perspective, this model is consistent with softwarebased publish/subscribe paradigm. Within commerce signals buyers“subscribe” to an event made known by the seller. Each buyer could pay adifferent price depending on the value they derive from the signal. Theseller initiates the signal, and can communicate specifics about theevent. By way of example and not limitation, consider “consumer[CONSUMER_NAME] purchased movie ticket” as a signal.

The signals may be directly derived, constructed, or generated fromsignal owner raw data (including data sourced by the signal seller)and/or synthetic signals may be constructed from at least one signal ora multiplicity of signals, i.e., one or more signals are used toconstruct additional signals, so the synthetic signals are not directlyassociated with the underlying raw data. Once again, signals orindicators according to the present invention are generated orconstructed from both structured and unstructured data of the signalowner. Similarly, a consensus signal or a generalized signal from one ormore signals. Note that the method steps of the present invention aremade for a multiplicity of signals and corresponding signal owners, inparticular in the case of distribution in the context of a virtualmarketplace or exchange for signals.

Preferably, after constructing signals, their distribution or sale tobuyers is controlled by the signal owner and rules governing sellersignals or owner signals that provide for limiting signal availabilitybased upon a rules engine that automatically considers buyer identity,campaign type, signal requested, price, redemption signal type, purchasequantity, past performance of signal, past performance of campaign type,past performance of buyer, and combinations thereof. The rules engineresides within a remote computer of the signal seller and iscommunicated through a distributed network of buyer computers via acommunications network, either directly and/or within a virtualmarketplace having a centralized rules engine governing or managing theexchange of signals for a multiplicity of signal sellers and signalbuyers.

Because signal value cannot be established conclusively independently ofa signal buyer's objective, the present invention systems and methodsprovide for the value of any of the signals to be based upon signalrelevance to the obj ective based upon a multiplicity of factors,including feedback such as time from last observation and/orinteraction, effectiveness of consumer interaction, depth ofinteraction, consumer feedback, buyer behavior, and/or consumerreputation. The signal seller correlation engines provide options forautomatically correlating how the signals or indicators relate to dataheld within the signal seller to data external to the signal seller. Thepresent invention also provides an embodiment including a method foradjusting the correlation of data with time and with respect torelevance to the objective(s) of buyers. Significantly, regardless ofthe objectives, generally the value of the signal(s) depends upon thetime of the signal construction from an event occurrence, wherein thevalue of the signal decays over time. Also, the present inventionprovides for the economic value of the signal to decay over time. By wayof example and not limitation, consider a signal “Consumer [ID]Purchased Movie Ticket at TIME”. This signal has relevance to a buyer'sobjective which is dependent on time since the observation. In otherwords a signal has a higher relevance if it is one second old, and alesser relevance as time progresses. The economic value of a signal isin proportion to its relevance, hence the value of the signal is alsohigher if the signal is one second old, and a lesser value as timeprogresses.

Feedback is a form of signal sourced from observers of objects.Observers typically have no need to maintain historical information, butrather report on current object state or activity. By way of example andnot limitation, consider a Wi-Fi hotspot at LOCATION that has a currentrequest for access from COMPUTER_ID. If the objective of a signal buyerwas for COMPUTER_ID presence at LOCATION, then this observation isrelevant to the buyer. Furthermore, the process of receiving feedbackfrom observers, pertaining to object state, activity, performance andbehavior, provides a mechanism to assess and adjust performance of manysignals and many uses. And so evolving the at least one signal basedupon the feedback received is an additional step in methods of thepresent invention.

Furthermore, signal value and signal construction and reconstruction, orthe generation, creation, or construction of new signals relies onautomatically receiving feedback from the buyer via the network and/orthe signal marketplace regarding signal qualities of relevance,correlation, and/or strength for each of the signals. And so evolvingthe at least one signal based upon the feedback received is anadditional step in methods of the present invention. Additionally, asignal quality and a signal reputation is automatically generated (bythe correlation engine of the signal seller and/or by the signalmarketplace or signal exchange) based upon an assessment of signalperformance compared with the objective(s). By way of example, acorrelation engine is described within U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,839 for“Processor and processing element for use in a neural network” byinventor Mobus, filed Aug. 29, 1994, which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

In one embodiment of the present invention, methods for creating signalsor indicators by corresponding signal owners are provided, wherein themethod steps performed by a signal owner include: constructing at leastone signal associated with a behavior of an object and/or an activityand/or an event associated with the object in a signal owner computerthat is constructed and configured for network-based communication witha remote server computer, wherein the value of the signals is controlledby the seller and based upon at least two factors associated with eachvalue, the at least two factors selected from the group consisting of:event, object state, change in state, behavior of an object,relationship to another object, relationship to a behavior, economicindicators, relevance to an objective, near-real-timeliness, frequency,recency, predictive accuracy, fidelity, reputation of the signal,reputation of the seller, affinity to a target, usefulness to anobjective, and combinations thereof; and tracking usage of the at leastone signal.

Additional steps include indexing the at least one signal; listing theindexed signals in a remote database associated with the remote servercomputer, communicating the remote index to the centralized datamarketplace signal index, wherein the centralized signal index listingprovides for automated discovery and matching with buyer candidateshaving corresponding objectives for buying signals and signals data,wherein the objectives include consumer behavior(s), events, objectstates, object performance; and updating the listing of the remote andcentralized indices by the signal seller or signal owner.

The at least one signal includes a signal type selected from the groupconsisting of: event signals, activity signals, behavior signals,relational signals, location signals, loyalty signals, purchase signals,social signals, and combinations thereof. Signals are generated orconstructed from both structured and unstructured data. Significantly,each signal owner controls how the at least one signal is created,generated and/or constructed; in embodiments of the present invention,methods of the present invention provide steps wherein signals orindicators are created by the signal owner transforming its own datainto the signals or indicators through steps of automatically organizingstructured data, unstructured data, external data based upon historicalpatterns, external usage, external feedback, external objectobservations, locally maintained correlation engines, centrally managedcorrelation engines, signal response management, and object estimators.

The content of the seller's signal is based upon the seller'sinteraction with one or more events, objects or activities. Signals aregenerated or constructed from both structured and unstructured data,which contain records of interaction. Significantly, each signal ownercontrols how the at least one signal is created, generated and/orconstructed; in embodiments of the present invention, methods of thepresent invention provide steps wherein signals or indicators arecreated by the signal owner transforming its own data into the signalsor indicators through steps of automatically organizing structured data,unstructured data and external data 360-80 based upon historicalpatterns, external usage, external feedback, external objectobservations, locally maintained correlation engines, centrally managedcorrelation engines, signal response management, and object estimators.

The present invention provides for the signal owner selectively sharinginformation with buyers and/or a marketplace, wherein the informationincludes a unique identifier associating each signal transmitted by anowner and/or signal seller for exchange with a signal buyer and/orsignal data marketplace and agreement within which the data exchange wasgoverned. Preferably, the information shared provides privacy protectionfor the signal owner. Furthermore, each signal includes an objectidentifier that can be dynamically mapped against a buyer's need orbuyer obj ectives, wherein the object identifier is used to protectprivacy of the signal owner or seller; the object identifier defines thesource, the destination, the delivery channel, the method for securingthe data, the agreement under which the data is exchanged, a transactionidentifier, a transaction time, information necessary to confirmreceipt, template which describes the message type, and the payload ofthe message. In any case, the signals or indicators constructed by thesignal seller (signal owner) provide the seller with a mechanism toprotect the underlying data from which the signals or indicators arederived. Also, in preferred embodiments, additional privacy protectionmay be provided by at least one of: screening, anonymizing, and/or usinghashed values. For example with hashed values, methods provide formatching credit card objects with MD5 hash of a credit card numberallowing signal sellers to identify behavior on the match of hash valuesversus the match of actual credit card numbers; importantly the MD5 hashcannot be easily reversed (except by NSA). Both entities or parties tothe transaction are doing consistent hash, but neither one disclose anumber. The same methods and systems are used with email hash; itconfirms the match, but only discloses the encrypted information.

Systems and methods of the present invention provide for releasingsignal data to a registered buyer based upon an agreement between thesignal owner and the registered buyer. Before an agreement is generated,the signal seller retains control of the signal data until afterreceiving a defined use by a registered buyer, which provides one of thekey terms for the agreement. Preferably, the agreement also providesrequirements for feedback and/or measurement of obj ective, such as byway of example and not limitation, to report on a result of use by aregistered buyer. Also, the release of the signal data is can be eitherbased upon an observance by the seller or by a request of the buyer. Inanother embodiment, the release of signal data is based upon a trigger.Preferably, the release of signal data or signals to registered buyer(s)is automatic based upon detection of the trigger.

The systems and methods of the present invention also provide forautomatically confirming receipt of the at least one signal by adestination or signal buyer(s); this step is achieved by automatedmessaging generated from the buyer computer and communicatedautomatically through the network to the seller computer directly and/orto the signal marketplace server computer for tracking the distributionof all signals and associated object identifiers based upon theagreements between signal sellers and signal buyers for predetermineduses of the signals.

As set forth in the foregoing, the construction of signals is providedfor use between signal sellers and signal buyers directly through anetwork for communication between their distributed computers, and/orfor use within a virtual marketplace. The present invention furtherprovides methods and systems for establishing and using a virtualmarketplace for value-based exchange of those constructed signals,wherein the economic value of the signals is determined in the contextof willing signal buyers and signal sellers for the signals.

In embodiments of the present invention including a virtual marketplace,the signals are derived from distributed data sources that are owned bya multiplicity of entities and/or individuals, and the signals areabstracted from distributed information and data associated with themultiplicity of entities and/or individuals to protect the underlyinginformation and data. Each entity or individual that sells signals datain the virtual marketplace first converts or transforms their unique rawdata (or underlying data) into a “signal” or signals, which areindicators associated with object behavior as observed by theirrespective owners. Importantly, each distributed data source which is amember of the marketplace may make remote indices and correlationsavailable to the virtual marketplace for the purpose of aiding buyerdiscovery, matching, clearing and settlement, reputation, identifyingdata leakage, and performance.

Signal sellers create and define the rules in which to sell signals.Rules can be based upon requestor, usage, object, behavior, performance,reputation or any other attribute available in the market. By way ofexample and not limitation, Barclays Bank will only allow consumertravel signals to be used by approved vendors and with explicit consumerpermission for hotel reservation use.

Buyers have the opportunity to request access to signals within therules of the seller, consumer, virtual marketplace, and/or otherregulatory authority. Sellers may choose to accept requests within theterms of an agreement, which is maintained in the marketplace ordirectly between the two parties, i.e., each signal seller and signalbuyer. In the case of a signals marketplace or exchange for the signals,the marketplace centralized server computer retains the information onthe agreement, signal requests, signal exchanges, feedback, historicaldata, buyer, seller, seller reputation, signal reputation, price,effectiveness, rules, constraints, and combinations thereof.

According to the present invention, signal creators (signal sellers) orsignal owners retain control of their respective data and the signalsconstructed therefrom, until a registered buyer defines use of thesignals, agrees to report on result (by way of example and notlimitation, reports on effectiveness for a given use) and other terms,and an agreement is created between buyer and seller. This method forcreating and using signals or indicators establishes control, value, andprice for those signals between the signal seller and signal buyer(s),and/or the signal sellers and signal buyers who are the participants ina virtual marketplace or signals exchange. The signal supplier or signalseller (or signal owner) controls how each signal is constructed orgenerated; the underlying data or information owned by the signal sellermay be reconstructed or regenerated into more than one signal for use bythird parties for different purposes. Marketplace rules governconstruction, transmission and tracking of signal information and theassociated object throughout their defined use; this allows signals tobe correlated to object behavior. Tying signal performance to objectbehavior and object events subsequently provides for measurement ofvalue and subsequent market based pricing of signals within the virtualmarketplace. Object behavior may take the form of feedback from parties,which are external to any given agreement between buyer and seller. Thisobject behavior obtained from external third party observers inform andcorrect the correlation of signals to objects and behavior within themarketplace. Importantly this correlation is external to informationavailable to either buyer or seller independently. Third party observersthus participate in the marketplace to provide feedback on objects,which may be covered within a multitude of agreements between amultitude of sellers and buyers. Thus the present invention provides forthe interaction of third party observers both directly to the signalsellers and across the entire marketplace participants. The signalconstruct defines the source, the destination, the delivery channel, themethod for securing the data, the agreement under which the data isexchanged, a transaction identifier, a transaction time, informationnecessary to confirm receipt, template which describes the message type,and the payload of the message. The construction of a signal by a signalseller will have varying degrees of relevance to any given signal buyerand that buyer's objective, thus the value of the information and data,as well as the signals generated therefrom, will vary with itscorrelation and fidelity. This provides a natural feedback loop in thevirtual marketplace or exchange. Signals that have poor fidelity or poorcorrelation with an objective will have poor performance, and thus acorrespondingly poor price.

Signal sellers have minimal insight into prospective buyers, and thevalue of their signals in any given context. Visibility is furtherlimited into competing data. For example, if an advertiser intends tosell hotels to frequent travelers of a predetermined destination, theyhave the choice of seeking information from flight records, geolocation, rental car records, credit card issuers, etc., andcombinations thereof. Buyers of information also have interests tooptimize price for a given performance or quality of correlation. If asignal buyer could obtain geographic location information for $0.05 witha 70% correlation, it may well be a preferred purchase to flightrecords, which cost $5.00 and have a 100% correlation. Within a signalsadvertising application embodiment, the signal marketplace providesservices to the buyer for discovering, directing and optimizing thepurchase of signals for targeted advertising, including campaigns acrossmultiple prospective sources, to determine which signals (if any) haverelevance to a given advertising campaign, and providing both buyers andsellers with a liquid market in which to exchange, and protect,information, while providing and purchasing use of the signals withinthe marketplace or exchange. Significantly, a category of signals thatrepresents real time or near real time activity, events, states andbehavior have values that decay quickly with time. In this instance asignal that represents an object's activity one second ago has a greatervalue than the same signal that is one hour old. The signals marketplaceenables the transmission of these real time signals within the rules andconstraints of the participants, consumers, marketplace and regulatoryauthorities.

Furthermore, the marketplace for signals includes a signals index fordiscovery, tracking and comparing signals and their historical value,reputation and performance. Categories or groups of signals by type,behavior, seller, and usage are also provided. By way of example and notlimitation, signals include an expression of frequency and relevancetoward an input variable (e.g., affinity to a city, type of food,automobiles, sports, etc.). Also, signal responses are tracked withunique object identifiers which the seller uses internally to uniquelyidentify a given object. By way of example and not limitation, objectidentifiers include encrypted forms of e-mail address, phone number,location, loyalty card number, etc. Correlation between signals andtheir performance is represented by the signal pricing and trading(buying/selling) within the virtual marketplace, third party observers,and/or directly between signal sellers and signal buyers. Additionally,initial rating for expected correlation between signals and theirperformance is provided by the seller. A new signal will have nohistorical performance and thus buyers will likely minimize theirpurchase until the performance can be validated.

In the embodiment having a signals marketplace or exchange, thecentralized server computer associated with the signals marketplacemaintains a master directory of signals and associated correlations inorder to facilitate buyer discovery, matching, clearing and settlement,reputation, identifying data leakage, and performance. Historicalperformance of a signal, signal seller and third party observerinformation may be used to correlate between signals based upon buyerand usage. Additionally, initial rating for expected correlation betweensignals and their performance is provided by the seller. A new signalwill have no historical performance and thus buyers may likely minimizetheir purchase or until the performance can be validated.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the flow diagram indicates signal constructionor generation method steps. As illustrated in the FIG. 1, the systemprovides data mining 364 on the unstructured data and data mapping 366on the structured data. Signals are based on structured 380 andunstructured 370 data. The content of the seller's signal is based uponan historical interaction with one or more events, objects or activitiesthat correspond to the behavior of an object. To obtain the seller'ssignal, the buyer must provide a reference point for the seller tocreate the behavior data. For example, a signal of AFFINITY_TO_CITY mayrequire input of ID, and CITY_NAME. A plane, a phone, a consumer, acomputer could all have an affinity to a city. Similarly a phonecompany, an airline, a rental car company, a bank, a search engine, arestaurant, or similar entity could all have a set of data that wouldinform the affinity toward a city. The signal seller has multipleoptions when constructing a signal of “AFFINITY_TO_CITY”, sellers coulduse consumer billing records, flight records, payment records, locationrecords, in sourcing data for to respond to this request. In order toprotect consumer information, the signal seller may use any source ofinformation in constructing a response and a signal response is alwaysnormalized to be between 0 and 1. For example an airline may use flightinformation to determine that a consumer has traveled to NYC five timesin the last year and has set AFFINITY_TO_CITY for New York equal to 0.5.The value of this information is completely dependent on its accuracy,recency, competing information sources, price and intended use. Themarketplace 250 informs the rules and pricing engine 320 of relevantinformation to set price.

Signal sellers have control over how they sell their signals data withinthe rules engine 320. These rules can be constructed based on anymarketplace attribute. For example if United Airlines bought signalsdata within the signal marketplace, or directly from signals seller(s),and receives a response from a signals data seller that is a competingairline for a particular traveler, United Airlines could surmise thethis particular traveler uses the competing airline for travel to thatcity and could thus directly market to the that consumer. In oneembodiment of the present invention, the signals data seller rulesengine 320 is within the control and ownership of the each signalseller. In this case, the marketplace data is not held centrally; remotesignal index information may be transferred to the common centralizedserver computer for the signals market. Significantly, this federatedmodel provides for control of the data by the owner, allowing themarketplace to establish linkage to federated data owners, with eachdata owner in control of rules and parameters for the release ofinformation to approved buyers; allowing the centralized market tomanage rules during the exchange and provide for clearing and settlementof federated data (signals) for multiple participants and/or multiplefederated data sources which act in concert toward a common objectives,with each participant paid based upon value delivered, observedexternally or price agreed to.

By way of example and not limitation, the signal marketplace rulesinclude registration of participants, construction of signals,destruction and safeguarding of data, purchase of signals, use ofsignals, tracking of signal performance, clearing and settlement,marketplace history, tracking reputation of signals and allparticipants, involvement of non participants, dispute process,participant responsibilities, and other significant areas. Given thatthe price of signals is unknown to any given buyer, the prospectivebuyer must first issue a request for quote to a signal seller. Therequest for quote contains information necessary for the seller todetermine price and establish bid-response communication protocol.Sellers respond with a request for quote (RFQ) response or no response.If there is an RFQ response it can include acceptance or alternateterms. Upon receiving the RFQ response the buyer may propose alternateterms until an acceptance is issued by the seller via the network-basedcommunications between distributed computing devices. Upon receiving theaccepted RFQ message from the seller, the buyer issues a bindingpurchase confirmation after which the seller confirms receipt andrespond with the delivery of the signal(s) in the timeframe specified.Signals can be transmitted in any volume defined within the purchaseconfirmation. By way of example and not limitation, signal pricing canconsist of both fixed price and price based upon an objective measuredwithin the marketplace. The marketplace embodying the invention providesan anonymous trading system having a communicating network fortransmitting electronic messages between distributed computers of signalsellers and signal buyers. A plurality of order input devices such asbuyer and seller terminals are connected to the communication network.Each signal order device may generate price quotation messages, whichinclude bid and/or offer prices and may communicate estimated price andanalytics information to a buyer. A plurality of seller rules andpricing engines are connected to the network, to match bids and offersthe marketplace execute deals and records transactions where matches aremade. At least one of the matching engines has an associated marketpublisher 400 (illustrated in FIG. 2), which with the signal will bedistributed and tracked.

Trackable behaviors are defined within the marketplace and may includeby way of example and not limitation: purchase with one time use code,purchase with credit card, location, registration, viewing of a website, opening of email, phone call or viewing of a television show orcommercial. Marketplace rules require participants to record definedbehaviors and object identifiers, which are correlated to a signal,object, event or behavior.

Within the signals marketplace or virtual marketplace or exchange,signals from multiple sources can be combined to identify objects.Similarly, object correlation to other objects, object correlation tobehaviors, object correlation to events, object correlation to states,are tracked so that the marketplace requests will match correspondingdata. By way of example and not limitation, objects such as: a person, acar, and a computer can all be correlated. Each of these objects canalso have behaviors that can be correlated using a correlation engine,which may be provided in the centralized server computer or distributedamong computers in communication over a network.

By way of example and not limitation if the signal AFFINITY_TO_CITY (NewYork) was combined with AFFINITY_TO_THEATER the target audience oflikely Broadway Ticket purchasers could be developed. A statisticalengine within the marketplace cross correlates signal performance forany given objective. The statistical engine assesses the performance ofsignals both in isolated and combined usage, thus retaining the abilityto assess value for a single signal within the marketplace and itsparticipants. In addition to combining signals, the marketplacestatistical engine also includes random samples of other signals. Thus,signal sellers are required to support analytics driven requests fortheir signals data to assess the cross correlation of signals. In thisway the marketplace may make automated suggestions of alternate datasources which may improve price-performance of a given objectives.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the schematic diagram illustrates componentswithin a signal marketplace and/or exchange of signals between signalsellers and signal buyers, and methods or processes associated withtheir interaction.

Federated Data Centralized Intelligence. With any given sellercorrelations can be held remotely with object behavior and stateestimated from both internal and external data. Significantly, thisremote data correlation is shared with the centralized marketplace toassist with buyer discovery and object feedback. This approach allowseach signal seller to control their data within their own environment,and performing the analysis locally to provide a standardized result setto data buyers. This standardized result set provides security to theowner of the data as to not allow unapproved usage and furtherdissemination. The result set and marketplace allow for the tracking ofthe benefit that this indicator provided to a given objective (e.g.,marketing or advertising campaign). It also allows the seller to controlthe price of the response based upon the benefit to which it provides,understanding that it will provide different benefits to differentbuyers and different usages.

The computer-implemented method for indexing distributed data in adistributed data network in which file metadata and signal types relatedto unique keys are temporarily centralized within a marketplace. Themethod of invention calls for assigning and using a unique key toidentify signals, which correlates to the key and returns it to themarketplace where it can be combined with other data sources. Akey-value store built up in rows for the marketplace metadata, andupdated by each node through response and direct participant edits. Eachof the rows has a composite row key and a row value pair, also referredto herein as key-value pair.

Also, as illustrated in the figures, in particular in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2,a method of construction of signals/indicators directly between signalsellers and signal buyers and/or within a data marketplace to express:recency, frequency, and affinity of a given input value is illustrated(generally referenced 2000 in FIG. 2), including the following:

Pricing signals data (signals) within a market of buyers and sellersbased upon performance of indicators toward an objective.

A self-organizing network for exchange of signal information betweensignal sellers and signal buyers.

A method of using data indicators from one or more sources each sourcepriced separately within a data marketplace to target consumers incampaigns operating through one or more advertising publishers. (DataBuyer 100, Campaign Manager 150, Signal Data Marketplace 200, SignalsManagement 250, Publisher (Distributor) 400), in particular for campaignmanagement, which may further include consumer 500 permissions includingConsumer Rules 550 and Consumer Pricing 570, and other Seller-basedcomponents 300, including Seller Rules and Pricing 320, Signal orIndicator Construction 340, Seller Data Correlation Engines 360-40,External Data Access 360-80, Seller Unstructured Data 370, and SellerStructured Data 380).

The present invention systems and methods may further include thefollowing: Performance based advertising within a data marketplace 200.Publishing targeted and trackable advertising based upon informationsourced from a signals marketplace or exchange. Examples of trackableadvertising include one-time use codes, coupons, discounts, loyalty,digitally stored incentives, and combinations thereof 450.

Registration of signal providers (data sellers) in a shared directory.

Registration of signal types offered by signals providers in a shareddirectory 300, 320, 340, 360.

Registration and participation of advertisers (signal buyers) in asignals marketplace or exchange 100, 150, 200.

Registration and participation of content distributors in a signalsmarketplace or exchange 400, 200.

Registration and participation of consumers in a signals marketplace orexchange 500-550, 200.

Method of governing exchange of consumer information within a datamarketplace that is dependent on consumer permission and consumerdefined fees 550-200.

Rules governing the exchange of signals in a marketplace 200.

Creation of advertising campaigns using distributed signals, i.e.,wherein the signals are provided from different sources.

Method of automated signal selection within a data marketplace, basedupon signal price performance and relevance.

The Method of communicating signal performance and pricing informationwithin a marketplace (marketplace analytics 250).

The method of purchasing signals via dynamic pricing in a bid/responsemarketplace 220.

Method of tracking the performance of federated indicators/signalswithin a data marketplace, based upon behavior (e.g., web site visit),location, card transaction information, redemption codes, loyalty cards.

Method of pricing indicators within a data marketplace based uponbehavior 600 web site visit, social sharing, location, card transactioninformation 650, redemption codes, and loyalty cards, as illustrated inFIG. 2.

Method of settling payment between buyer and seller 700, 320, 270, 150,100 based upon redemption, coupon, one time code, payment, location,registration or other purchase information to confirm consumer behaviorwithin a distributed data marketplace.

Identification of consumer marketing channel preference through signalavailability, point of sale purchase information and other redemptioninformation.

Use of consumer location information to inform effectiveness ofadvertising within a signals marketplace.

Use of encrypted credit card to confirm purchase within an advertisingcampaign.

Use of encrypted consumer ID within retailer purchase history to confirmpurchase within an advertising campaign

Technical interaction and message exchange between signal buyers andsellers.

Process of exchanging requested purchase of data from a data providerwithin a data marketplace.

Statistical method for optimizing signal selection for advertisingcampaigns operating with a signals marketplace or exchange.

Statistical method for optimizing advertising distribution channel basedupon signal information.

Method of defining campaign types supported by signal marketplace.Campaigns can begin with target or campaigns can be managed bydistributor in a bid for consumer access by competing campaigns.

Protection of consumer information in a shared signals, and furtherincluding steps for protecting consumer anonymity in the exchange ofsignal information.

Clearing and settlement of signal exchange between participants in amarketplace based upon signal purchase agreements and signal performanceinformation.

Method restraining signal exchange through rules based upon local lawsof each transaction participant.

Method of selling indicators through marketplace agreements with pricebased upon advertising performance.

Method of Sharing revenue for consumer purchases with signal providersbased upon measured consumer behavior 600.

Method of Settlement of financial obligations in a data marketplacewhich may include consumer behavior, consumer payment, seller flat fees,seller performance fees, and consumer revenue sharing 270.

Referring now to FIG. 3, a signal data correlation engine 360 isillustrated including the components of a signal correlation interfacelayer 360-140, a signal data access layer 360-30 and a data processor360-10; wherein the signal correlation interface layer 360-140 furtherincludes: a commission engine 360-40, an object behavior estimator360-50, an object state estimator 360-60, a signal response management360-70 having external data access 360-80. The signal data access layerfurther including an object state processor 360-20, an object behaviorprocessor 360-23, an event manager 360-26, and signal history 360-26.The external data access is further related to external signal feedback360-110, a marketplace data connector 360-120, an other external dataconnector 360-130, an external object state 360-100, and an externalobject behavior 360-90. The signal construction 340 from unstructureddata 370 and structured data 380 also relates to the signal/seller datacorrelation engine 360 and seller rules and pricing 320. Signalanalytics 250 is related to the data correlation engine 360 as well asbehavior tracking 600 of behavior (including by observer) 650 and in thecase of advertising, redemption management 700.

By way of additional background for the signal marketplace of thepresent invention, it is a significant factor that federated data isused. As opposed to “sharing lists” and joining information within asingle database. Federated data keeps raw data localized with the ownerresponsible for disclosure, usage, pricing, security, and privacy.Within a data marketplace federated data providers (sellers) use signalsas a way to protect sensitive information. Signals (or indicatorsdescribed hereinabove) are a type of meta data indicators that are basedupon information in control of the data sellers. These signals orindicators require input context and are sold for purposes explicitlydefined within the signal marketplace. For example, in anAFFINITY_TO_signal example, consumer flight records are never shared noris the traveler's current location, rather the signal response canreflect how often or how recently an object was associated with a givencity. Signals create scarcity and enable control both of which arecritical in any functional marketplace. The value of any good isdependent on quality, availability, use, alternatives and price. Thevirtual signal marketplace performs analysis on signal results todetermine effectiveness and value. This information is communicated toall participants, which informs the market of potential buyers andsellers.

In order for a signal to be controlled, the following factors orconsiderations are required: a) the signal's owner must have solediscretion on access and dissemination; b) the underlying data orinformation associated with the signal must also be controlled, sincethere can be no efficient market for the data or signals if they can beobtained elsewhere at a lower cost; c) a signal request must containinformation for the owner to release, which includes information on thebuyer, status of agreement with marketplace, agreement with the buyer(if any), consumer constraints (if any), price offered, planned usage,and combinations thereof; the marketplace processes, systems, andservices to protect the exchange, assure secure delivery, track usage,track value generated, settle funds, issue receipt, deliverauditability; and combinations thereof.

There are different control requirements on “consumer information” (orpersonally identifiable information or PII), proprietary information,object behavior information, object state information and other genericsummary information. Some of these control requirements are driven byregulatory issues or requirements. Some information can only beexchanged to another party where an agreement is in place (i.e., aclosed market). The control elements of a signal include the following:a) Signal type: Open, Restricted, PII; b) Signal Price: Market, floorvalue generated; c) Buyer Information or profile; c) Consumer consentinformation (if any).

After defining the signals to sell, and registering their correspondingrules and constraints, signals information is exchanged within thevirtual signal marketplace. There are five (5) primary data flowsbetween a signal provider and the signal marketplace or signal exchange,including:

-   -   1) RFQ. Request for quote. In this data flow, a prospective        buyer will request a price from signal provider. The signal        buyer provides: ID, signal(s) requested, input parameters (e.g.,        destination city, campaign type, price offered (per item and per        success), time, expiry time, minimum fill, maximum, settlement.        Along with this information the signal marketplace or signal        exchange will also provide Buyer ID reputation information.    -   2) RFQ Response. Signal provider will either respond with an        acceptance of order and time/quantity to fill, or a respond with        alternate price/denial. The signal marketplace or signal        exchange provides “optional” seller side software to manage this        interaction. Rules surrounding minimum price, data effectiveness        and buyer ID are incorporated to response. If offer is accepted,        signal marketplace or signal exchange will begin tracking of the        transaction order.    -   3) Purchase Confirmation. Buyers will issue purchase        confirmation for approved RFQs. Within our marketplace        agreement, a purchase confirmation is a commitment by the buyer        to pay for information within the terms of the Commerce Signals        Marketplace Agreement.    -   4) Signal Delivery. Signal provider provides the signals and        buyer confirms receipt    -   5) Settlement. Transaction Reference number, quantity provided,        time provided, item fees (if any), redemption fees (if any),        redemptions to date, redemption expiry period, amount paid,        amount paid to date, dispute reference numbers, receipt        confirmed.

By way of example, the present invention creates a virtual market fordata, wherein the underlying or actual data has been transformed intosignals or indicators to protect the underlying data, while stillproviding information relating to the data that is actionable by signalbuyers. Each data seller can develop their own signals or indicators,controlled by their own rules and corresponding correlation engine(s),which data they wish to sell to the outside world. For example aretailer could develop a signal “affinity for golf” with a result of0-1. Consumers who buy golf balls, golf equipment would have a strongersignal based upon affinity. Golf marketers could subsequently use thisinformation to better inform advertising, in particular for targetedadvertising campaigns.

Signal buyers participate directly with signal sellers and/or in themarketplace to identify objects that they wish to influence or measure.Other entities, such as campaign managers, publishers, media companiestake different roles in the measurement and influencing of the behaviorof objects through the use of signal information. The virtualmarketplace supports both buyer led transactions and seller ledtransactions. By way of example and not limitation seller led campaignscan begin with a publisher that has a relationship with a consumer of agiven profile. Buyers can bid for the influencing the behavior of thatconsumer through the marketplace. Marketplace participants can assumemultiple roles such as buyer, seller, and distributor.

Regardless of signal or indicator construction, signals must beregistered to participate in the signal marketplace. To provide securityto protect the signals within the marketplace, and to control signaldissemination or access and distribution to signals registered in thesignal marketplace, multiple object identifiers can be used. By way ofexample and not limitation these include encrypted forms of e-mailaddress, card number, phone numbers, device ID, location, loyalty cardand address as key for purchase of information from a seller. Thus thedata seller or signal provider controls the information that is sharedwithin the marketplace and with prospective buyers. These controlsrelate to access, viewing, downloading, copying, etc. and combinationsthereof.

Technical communication protocols for signals include writing data ofthe buyer into a buyer computer application; notifying buyer computerapplication to send XML file when data has been written to themarketplace order computer application data file by the buyer computerapplication; monitoring the marketplace order computer application queuefrom the marketplace execution application for notification that datahas been written to the data file by the buyer computer application;reading the data of the buyer computer application data file from themarketplace execution computer application upon detection ofnotification; notifying marketplace order computer application to sendXML file when data has been written to the seller computer applicationdata file by the marketplace order computer application; monitoring theseller computer application queue from the marketplace order applicationfor notification that data has been written to the data file by themarketplace order computer application; notifying a buyer computerapplication read file when data has been read by the seller computerapplication from the marketplace order computer application data file;monitoring the seller read file from the marketplace order computerapplication for notification that data has been read from to the buyercomputer application data file by the seller computer application toinitiate further writing to the marketplace order computer applicationdata file.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the system 1000 is comprised of both dedicatedservers 1500 and servers operating within a private cloud 1700. Thededicated servers 1500 contain: processing units 1510, memory 1520 datastorage 1600. Dedicated servers 1500 are constructed, configured andcoupled to enable communication over a network 1200. Servers 1720operating within a private cloud 1700 leverage shared processing units1722A, shared memory 1725A and shared disk 1728A are also configured andcoupled to enable communications over a network 1200. The dedicatedservers 1500 and cloud servers 1700 provide for user interconnectionover the network 1200 using computers 1110 positioned remotely from theservers. Furthermore, the system is operable for a multiplicity ofremote computers or terminals 1300, 1400 to access the dedicated servers1500 and servers 1720A operating within a private cloud 1700 remotely.For example, in a request and reply architecture devices registered tomarketplace participants may interconnect through the network 1200 toaccess data within dedicated servers 1600 and within the private cloud1780. In preferred embodiments, the network 1200 is the Internet, or itcould be an intranet, or any other network suitable for searching,obtaining, and/or using information and/or communications, includingreceiving the notification and providing a response.

The system of the present invention further includes an operating system1515 installed and running on the dedicated servers 1500, enablingservers 1500 to communicate through network 1200 with the remote,registered devices. The operating system may be any operating system1515 known in the art that is suitable for network communication. Amemory within dedicated servers 1520 is interconnected with the server1500. Memory 1520 may be integral with server 1500 or may be external tothe server and interconnected therewith. A program of instruction 1620is resident in memory 1520 within the parameters set by the operatingsystem 1515 which accesses persistent storage 1600.

The system of the present invention further includes servers 1720A whichsupport multiple tenants 1710A within a private cloud 1700 that sharesystem resources through multiple virtual machines 1720A. Each virtualmachine 1720A consists of an operating system installed and running onshared processing units 1722A, shared memory 1725A, shared persistentstorage 1728A which access programmatic and user data 1782. The privatecloud 1700 communicates through the network 1200 with remote registereddevices. The operating system and virtual machines 1720A may be any suchkind known in the art that is suitable for managing multi-tenant cloudservices and network communication. Memory 1725A within shared cloudinfrastructure is interconnected with each associated virtual machine1720A according to the operating system running within the processingunit 1722A. A program of instruction 1782 is managed within memory 1725Aupon retrieval by disk management 1728A within the parameters set by theoperating system 1720 and virtual machine. Additionally, the followingcomponents are illustrated in FIG. 4: device 1100, instructions 1115,processor 1120, input/output interface 1130, bus 1125, memory 1350,1450, instructions 1610, 1785 applications 1630, 1784, tenant N 1710B,server VM N 1720B, shared memory 1722B, shared disk 1728B and shared CPU1725B.

Additionally or alternatively to FIG. 4, FIG. 5 is a schematic diagramof an embodiment of the invention illustrating a computer system,generally described as 800, having a network 810 and a plurality ofcomputing devices 820, 830, 840. In one embodiment of the invention, thecomputer system 800 includes a cloud-based network 810 for distributedcommunication via the network's wireless communication antenna 812 andprocessing by a plurality of mobile communication computing devices 830.In another embodiment of the invention, the system 800 is a virtualizedcomputing system capable of executing any or all aspects of softwareand/or application components presented herein on the computing devices820, 830, 840. In certain aspects, the computer system 800 may beimplemented using hardware or a combination of software and hardware,either in a dedicated computing device, or integrated into anotherentity, or distributed across multiple entities or computing devices.

By way of example, and not limitation, the computing devices 820, 830,840 are intended to represent various forms of digital devices 820, 840,850 and mobile devices 830, such as a server, blade server, mainframe,mobile phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a smart phone, adesktop computer, a netbook computer, a tablet computer, a workstation,a laptop, and other similar computing devices. The components shownhere, their connections and relationships, and their functions, aremeant to be exemplary only, and are not meant to limit implementationsof the invention described and/or claimed in this document

In one embodiment, the computing device 820 includes components such asa processor 860, a system memory 862 having a random access memory (RAM)864 and a read-only memory (ROM) 866, and a system bus 868 that couplesthe memory 862 to the processor 860. In another embodiment, thecomputing device 830 may additionally include components such as astorage device 890 for storing the operating system 892 and one or moreapplication programs 894, a network interface unit 896, and/or aninput/output controller 898. Each of the components may be coupled toeach other through at least one bus 868. The input/output controller 898may receive and process input from, or provide output to, a number ofother devices 899, including, but not limited to, alphanumeric inputdevices, mice, electronic styluses, display units, touch screens, signalgeneration devices (e.g., speakers) or printers.

By way of example, and not limitation, the processor 860 may be ageneral-purpose microprocessor (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU)),a graphics processing unit (GPU), a microcontroller, a Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), aField Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), a Programmable Logic Device (PLD),a controller, a state machine, gated or transistor logic, discretehardware components, or any other suitable entity or combinationsthereof that can perform calculations, process instructions forexecution, and/or other manipulations of information.

In another implementation, shown in FIG. 5, a computing device 840 mayuse multiple processors 860 and/or multiple buses 868, as appropriate,along with multiple memories 862 of multiple types (e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core).

Also, multiple computing devices may be connected, with each deviceproviding portions of the necessary operations (e.g., a server bank, agroup of blade servers, or a multi-processor system). Alternatively,some steps or methods may be performed by circuitry that is specific toa given function.

According to various embodiments, the computer system 800 may operate ina networked environment using logical connections to local and/or remotecomputing devices 820, 830, 840, 850 through a network 810. A computingdevice 830 may connect to a network 810 through a network interface unit896 connected to the bus 868. Computing devices may communicatecommunication media through wired networks, direct-wired connections orwirelessly such as acoustic, RF or infrared through a wirelesscommunication antenna 897 in communication with the network's wirelesscommunication antenna 812 and the network interface unit 896, which mayinclude digital signal processing circuitry when necessary. The networkinterface unit 896 may provide for communications under various modes orprotocols.

In one or more exemplary aspects, the instructions may be implemented inhardware, software, firmware, or any combinations thereof. A computerreadable medium may provide volatile or non-volatile storage for one ormore sets of instructions, such as operating systems, data structures,program modules, applications or other data embodying any one or more ofthe methodologies or functions described herein. The computer readablemedium may include the memory 862, the processor 860, and/or the storagedevice 890 and may be a single medium or multiple media (e.g., acentralized or distributed computer system) that store the one or moresets of instructions 900. Non-transitory computer readable mediaincludes all computer readable media, with the sole exception being atransitory, propagating signal per se. The instructions 900 may furtherbe transmitted or received over the network 810 via the networkinterface unit 896 as communication media, which may include a modulateddata signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism andincludes any delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means asignal that has one or more of its characteristics changed or set in amanner as to encode information in the signal.

Storage devices 890 and memory 862 include, but are not limited to,volatile and non-volatile media such as cache, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM,FLASH memory or other solid state memory technology, disks or discs(e.g., digital versatile disks (DVD), HD-DVD, BLU-RAY, compact disc(CD), CD-ROM, floppy disc) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or any other medium that can be used to store the computer readableinstructions and which can be accessed by the computer system 800.

It is also contemplated that the computer system 800 may not include allof the components shown in FIG. 5 may include other components that arenot explicitly shown in FIG. 5 or may utilize an architecture completelydifferent than that shown in FIG. 5 The various illustrative logicalblocks, modules, elements, circuits, and algorithms described inconnection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented aselectronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both. Toclearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software,various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and stepshave been described above generally in terms of their functionality.Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or softwaredepends upon the particular application and design constraints imposedon the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the describedfunctionality in varying ways for each particular application (e.g.,arranged in a different order or partitioned in a different way), butsuch implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing adeparture from the scope of the present invention.

As set forth in this description, the systems and methods of the presentinvention for constructing signals for controlled distribution and useby the signal owner solve a longstanding, unmet need not addressed bythe prior art. The system and methods of the present invention providefor constructing signals for controlled distribution and use by thesignal owner; for generating signals from locally controlled andisolated sources for indexing, correlation, discovery and use in afederated model with a multiplicity of other signals and participants;or for allowing federated data owners to set rules and parameters forthe release of information to external parties; for external objects,events, activities and behaviors to inform indexing and correlation oflocally held data in a federated data model; for consumers to permissionuse of signals and other data taken by third parties throughobservations; pricing data signals based upon value derived from the useof data signals as observed by external parties, such as from objectbehavior and feedback; or for a common taxonomy for signal creation,communication, exchange and use within a federated model; or forprotecting locally held raw information through generating signals whichcontain a payload of information for a specific use; for identifyingexternal uses for internal data through signals operating in a federatedmarketplace; for creating one signal event that has relevance tomultiple buyers in a federated signals marketplace; and/or forestimating the decay of economic value of data based upon time in afederated signals marketplace. Thus, the creation of signals orindicators is important for providing secure, private and controlledrelease of information for value that is determined by structured andrules-based system and methods that do not disclose or release theunderlying data.

Certain modifications and improvements will occur to those skilled inthe art upon a reading of the foregoing description. The above-mentionedexamples are provided to serve the purpose of clarifying the aspects ofthe invention and it will be apparent to one skilled in the art thatthey do not serve to limit the scope of the invention. All modificationsand improvements have been deleted herein for the sake of concisenessand readability but are properly within the scope of the presentinvention.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method for creating signals bycorresponding signal owners, the method steps performed by a signalowner comprising: constructing at least one signal associated with abehavior of an object and/or an activity and/or an event associated withthe object in a signal owner computer that is constructed and configuredfor network-based communication with a remote server computer, whereinthe at least one signal includes information about recency, frequency,and affinity; wherein the corresponding behavior includes informationabout behavior recency, behavior frequency, and behavior affinity;generating a first value for each of the at least one signal; andtracking usage of the at least one signal.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the at least one signal provides a feedback corresponding to thebehavior, activity, and/or the event.
 3. The method of claim 1, furtherincluding the steps of: indexing the at least one signal; and listingthe indexed signals in a database associated with the remote servercomputer, wherein the listing provides for automated matching with buyercandidates having corresponding objectives for buying signals andsignals data, wherein the objectives include consumer behavior(s). 4.The method of claim 3, further including the step of automaticallyupdating the listing and/or creating new listings.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the at least one signal includes a signal type selectedfrom the group consisting of: event signals, activity signals, behaviorsignals, relational signals, location signals, loyalty signals, purchasesignals, social signals, and combinations thereof.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the at least one signal is generated from structureddata.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one signal isgenerated from unstructured data.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein theat least one signal is generated from both structured and unstructureddata.
 9. The method of claim 1, further including the step ofautomatically organizing structured data and unstructured data by acorrelation engine to automatically generate the at least one signal.10. The method of claim 1, further including the step of retainingcontrol of signal data until after receiving a defined use by aregistered buyer.
 11. The method of claim 1, further including the stepof receiving a defined use and an agreement to report on a result of useby a registered buyer.
 12. The method of claim 1, further including thestep of releasing signal data to a registered buyer based upon anagreement between the signal owner and the registered buyer.
 13. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the signal owner controls how the at leastone signal is created, generated and/or constructed.
 14. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the signal owner controls how the at least one signalis used by the buyer.
 15. The method of claim 1, further including thestep of monitoring performance of the at least one signal compared witha corresponding objective.
 16. The method of claim 1, further includingthe step of the signal owner selectively sharing information with buyersand/or a marketplace.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein theinformation includes a unique identifier associated with each signalowner/seller for exchange with a buyer and/or data marketplace.
 18. Themethod of claim 16, wherein the information shared provides privacyprotection for the signal owner.
 19. The method of claim 1, furtherincluding the step of automatically determining a relevance to anobjective for the at least one signal based on comparison with consumerfeedback and consumer behavior.
 20. The method of claim 1, furtherincluding the step of creating a synthetic signal from the at least onesignal.
 21. The method of claim 1, further including the step ofcreating a synthetic signal from a multiplicity of signals.
 22. Themethod of claim 1, further including the step of creating a consensus orgeneralized signal from one or more signals.
 23. The method of claim 1,wherein the steps are made for a multiplicity of signals andcorresponding signal owners.
 24. The method of claim 1, furtherincluding the step of limiting signal availability based upon a rulesengine that automatically considers buyer identity, campaign type,signal requested, price, redemption signal type, purchase quantity, pastperformance of signal, past performance of campaign type, pastperformance of buyer, and combinations thereof.
 25. The method of claim1, further including the step of automatically correlating how the valueof the information decays over time and with respect to relevance to theobjective.
 26. The method of claim 1, further including the step ofgenerating a value of signal relevance to the objective based uponconsumer feedback, buyer behavior, and/or consumer reputation.
 27. Themethod of claim 1, further including the step of receiving feedback fromthe buyer regarding qualities of relevance, correlation, and/or strengthof the at least one signal.
 28. The method of claim 27, furtherincluding evolving the at least on signal based upon the feedbackreceived.
 29. The method of claim 1, wherein a signal quality and asignal reputation is automatically generated based upon an assessment ofsignal performance compared with the objective.
 30. The method of claim1, wherein the at least one signal includes an object identifier thatcan be dynamically mapped against a buyer's need, wherein the objectidentifier is used to protect privacy.
 31. The method of claim 1,further including the step of automatically confirming receipt of the atleast one signal by a destination.
 32. The method of claim 1, whereinthe value of the at least one signal depends upon the time of the atleast one signal from an event occurrence, and wherein the value of theat least one signal decays over time.